Supervisors of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Lieutenant Governor As part of the interim appointment as lieutenant governor, Angelle agreed not to seek the position in the special election held in November 2010. The vacancy occurred when Mitch Landrieu resigned to become the mayor of New Orleans. Angelle was a Democrat until he switched to the Republican affiliation on October 26, 2010. Both parties had attempted to recruit Angelle to run for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district in the 2010 elections to succeed Democrat Charlie Melancon, who ran instead for the U. S. Senate in 2010 against Republican David Vitter, whom Angelle also opposed in the 2015 gubernatorial race. Earlier, Angelle had declined the overtures from both parties to run for Congress. Angelle officially began the duties of lieutenant governor on May 17, 2010. He temporarily relinquished the job of secretary of the Department of Natural Resources to Robert Harper but continued to serve as the governor's lobbyist to the legislature. Angelle returned to his position in Natural Resources after his time as lieutenant governor ended. Moratorium Rally On July 21, 2010, Angelle led a rally of over 12,000 citizens in Lafayette's Cajundome demanding the federal government to "Lift the Moratorium Now!" President Barack Obama had imposed the 2010 United States deepwater drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. There, Angelle notably said, "This moratorium is not hurting the stock holders of BP, or Exxon or Chevron; this moratorium is hurting the Cheramies, and the Calais, and the Dupuis, and the Robins and the Boudreauxs, and the Thibodeauxs," referring to the negative effect on the local economy that the moratorium may have. The moratorium was lifted in October 2010, a move considered a pivotal point in Angelle's political career. Sinkhole controversy On August 3, 2012, the discovery of the Bayou Corne sinkhole in Assumption Parish, Louisiana was the result of a collapsed salt dome operated by the Texas Brine Company. This collapse allowed oil and gases to escape and surface. Angelle has received criticism for leaving his Department of Natural Resources position five days after the disaster began, however, it was later discovered that the sinkhole was due to months of seismic activity that The Texas Brine Company ignored. As of October 2014, the sinkhole is still ongoing while local residents continue a legal battle with the Texas Brine Company. On September 25, 2015,